Pacific News Bytes sat down to speak with Kevin about his role in Hawaii’s high-tech world...

Q: How and why did you get started in the tech field?

A: I got started in the tech field with Pacific Bell in San Francisco because they were going through the shift from an emphasis of voice services to data services, and it represented an exciting time of growth for the “phone company”.

Q: What was the best life lesson you learned?

A: “Do right. Do your best. Treat others as you want to be treated.” From Lou Holtz and the Bible!

Q: Who is your biggest influence? Why?

A: I know this might sound like a cop out answer, but I’d say that I’ve had many positive influences, mostly from great leaders that I’ve had the opportunity to work for. Here locally, leaders like Warren Haruki and Keith Nagata showed me how to adapt to doing business in Hawaii and the importance of developing, nurturing, and maintaining, strong relationships. Back on the mainland, I was influenced by managers who were deeply interested in my growth and success, and showed me the power of mentoring to help me to keep growing professionally and personally.

Q: Why did you accept this job at Clearwire?

A: It is very rare to run into an opportunity like Clearwire, particularly in Hawaii. A well thought out startup company with wireless pioneer, Craig McCaw leading the way and a high-tech, yet simple whole new way to surf the Internet--how could I say no?!

Q: What do you enjoy the most about your job? Why?

A: There are so many things I enjoy about this job, but the absolute most enjoyable times have to be when a customer sees our service in action for the first time. It’s almost like a revelation and the look of disbelief is so fun to experience over and over again!

It’s enjoyable to be able to offer a simple product that enables people to experience more freedom and more possibilities in exploring the Internet on their own terms.

Q: What do you enjoy the least about your job? Why?

A: Probably the fact that it is so demanding time-wise that I don’t feel I have a really good work/life balance right now, and that has always been important to me. My family is extremely important to me and I enjoy spending time with them, so those times are more precious now, especially as the kids are getting older.

Q: What describes a typical day in your job?

A: I usually start off with a meeting with one of our sales teams and then a couple of one-on-one meetings with leaders in the business and our sales staff. After handling administrative responsibilities, I try to chase myself out of the office around noon to spend the rest of the day in the field with our various sales teams and get as close to the customer as possible so that I can stay in tune with what our teams face day in and day out. I usually wrap up in the evening with e-mails, reports and forecasts.

Q: What is the biggest challenge of your job?